John Hay worked as President Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and close confidante.

After Lincoln won the election of 1860, Hay took a job as one of Lincoln’s secretaries (along with John Nicolay). The team of Hay and Nicolay spent countless hours with Lincoln during his presidency. 

After President Lincoln’s murder,
John Hay wrote: “I consider Lincoln Republicanism incarnate – with all its faults and all its virtues. As in spite of some rudenesses, Republicans is the sole hope of a sick world, so Lincoln with all his foibles, is the greatest character since Christ.”